


I need your sword

by ravenwing136



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Canon Compliant, During Canon, Fight Scene, Gen, I Tried, In Character, Mild Blood, Mild Gore, Mild Language, One Shot, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-28
Updated: 2015-12-28
Packaged: 2018-05-09 23:48:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5560630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ravenwing136/pseuds/ravenwing136
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As Kaneki spirals away from sanity, Tsukiyama suspects the worst from a casual invitation to train. Set in the canon when Kaneki asks Tsukiyama to spar with him, after failing to capture the nurse from Aogiri.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I need your sword

"I need your sword."

A few months ago, Tsukiyama would have wept with delight at the invitation, but as he faced Kaneki in the bare training room, what filled him was unease. He fiddled with his jacket lapel, a riotous mess of colour that put some of his emotions into perspective.

Just what was Kaneki planning...?

Kaneki took up a spot ten metres in front of Tsukiyama, his bare feet patting on the tiled floor. He didn't look up as he rocked back and forth in a mild warm up, his white hair swaying in time with his lean frame. Tsukiyama narrowed his eyes. Surely Kaneki wasn't planning to kill him -

Solemn eyes met Tsukiyama's gaze. "Are you going to fight, or not?" Kaneki said flatly. Tsukiyama caught an acrid scent, like heated metal, as Kaneki's eye darkened in readiness. He covered a shudder of excitement with loud laughter. "Dear Kaneki, you mustn't be impatient! You are a force to be reckoned with, I don't want to commit suicide in such a forlorn place!"

Kaneki tilted his head, then nodded. He didn't blink when Tsukiyama jumped before him in a flash, swiping at his head. Kaneki twisted low, letting it pass harmlessly over him. He dodged Tsukiyama's second blow with equal ease before kicking him in the stomach, knocking him backwards several paces.

"Ah!" Tsukiyama gasped in pain. He raised his arms to fend off Kaneki's side swipe, then leapt quickly out of range. Kaneki didn't leave him time to breathe, running him down with a flurry of blows at his head. Arms locked desperately over his face, Tsukiyama swore. _Merde,_ when did Kaneki get this fast?!

As though in answer, Kaneki slammed Tsukiyama's legs out from under him, forcing him to roll out of the way. Tsukiyama quickly got to his feet and made a stunning jump to the other side of the room, well away from the lightning-fast boy.

" _Molto bene_ , Kaneki-kun!" He called, clapping his hands slowly. At this distance, he could just make out Kaneki's mouth pulled up in a snarl, hands fisted at his sides.

"You bastard, take this seriously!" Kaneki snapped.

"I don't think so," Tsukiyama sang. He lowered his hands and stood quite still, willing Kaneki to believe him. "I don't want you to kill me."

Kaneki's mouth fell open, comically rendering him into a confused nineteen-year-old boy. "What...? I'm not going to kill you!" He sounded baffled, his eyes huge and uncomprehending, the way he looked when he was first brought to Anteiku.

Oh, he looked so delicious, like a tender white rabbit getting strangled!

Tsukiyama's heart raced, but he forced himself to remain calm. "I don't believe you, Kaneki," he said simply. "I know you won't trust me, but you keep pushing me further and further away. How do I know you don't see me as an enemy, to kill and eat like you do those unfortunate ghouls of Aogiri?" Kaneki just stared. He tried a different tack. "You've brought me away from everyone, you could kill me down here and no one would know any better - come on, Kaneki, can't you see what this looks like?" he cajoled, gesturing at the bare basement, empty for the two of them.

A small sound escaped Kaneki, and Tsukiyama pressed on. "It's not just me who's afraid of you; everyone at Anteiku is scared of you, what you've been doing, and why you keep killing - "

Kaneki flinched, knees buckling before he caught himself. The fight in him vanished like cold vapour in the wind. He clutched at his left eye, smitten by the black _kakugan_ , and trembled. "I just wanted to protect everyone," he said, his voice thin and wavering.

"But you forgot to protect yourself."

He saw his words strike Kaneki like a blow; his fingers dug into the hollow around his ghoul eye as though contemplating ripping it out like the filthy ghoul organs he never wanted. Tsukiyama held his breath so he could hear Kaneki's anguish better; those ragged breaths of self-loathing clearer... oh...

Kaneki-kun looks so beautiful when he's in pain!

He savoured the sounds a little longer, before crossing the fighting floor in long strides. Kaneki looked through him the whole time. Tsukiyama rolled his eyes. Honestly, he was just too noble sometimes.

He laid a hand on Kaneki's shoulder. "Listen, I'm not asking you to trust me, but trust your friends," Tsukiyama said gently. "Touka, Hinami and the others don't understand what you've done for them, but you're doing the right thing, if not the right way." He tightened his grip sharply, causing Kaneki to blink. "Kaneki, I'd eat you if I got the chance, but after everything we've done, I'd rather you _not_ give me that chance, _comprends_?"

Kaneki going berserk again would be his reason to leave too, he thought, if only for self-preservation, but Tsukiyama wasn't going to abandon Kaneki just like that. Not without a bite.

Kaneki lowered his hand slowly, though the flesh around his eye remained a harsh pink. "You've spoken to our friends at Anteiku about me?" he said.

Tsukiyama shrugged. "Once or twice."

"Who did you speak to?"

"Hinami... she's worried about you, we all are."

"Did Touka say anything?" Kaneki asked. He was slipping back into his shell of authority again, demanding answers and information. Tsukiyama sighed dramatically at this disappointing turn. "No, Touka doesn't talk to me if she can help it." Kaneki looked at him strangely for a moment, then batted away Tsukiyama's hand. Tsukiyama pretended to look hurt, resisting the temptation to lick his still-warm palm.

"Thank you for letting me know," Kaneki said stiffly. His face softened. "And I guess I'm sorry for making everyone worry. Even you, Tsukiyama." Kaneki didn't let him get a flowery word in. "But I came here to train, and I still need you to help me with that." Tsukiyama said nothing.

"I promise not to kill you," Kaneki added. Unhelpfully, in Tsukiyama's opinion.

"Sorry, Kaneki, I'd rather not fight you further," Tsukiyama said smoothly, brushing away an imaginary strand of hair. "I'd be at a terrible disadvantage, _mon ami_."

Kaneki's  eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Why?"

Tsukiyama's arm swept out in a big arc, taking both of them in. "Why, your _rinkaku kagune_ is the perfect poison to my own _koukaku_ blade! It'd be foolish for me to proceed," he smirked. "I might as well fight you in handcuffs."

Kaneki's mismatched eyes narrowed, "You're making this up, aren't you?"

"As though I would fake being weaker than anyone!" he retorted, pretending to be mortally offended. "Nothing right now is persuading me to fight you at all, since winning is very unlikely." And I do so hate losing, he thought. Tsukiyama looked down at his bright pinstriped jacket and pouted. "Even if I win, I'll have ruined my suit..."

The look he got was supremely unimpressed, but Kaneki was thinking. Tsukiyama wanted to blurt out the answer, throw it down like roses at Kaneki's feet, but that would ruin the surprise!

I'll fight you, Kaneki, just give me a reason...

Kaneki finally worked it out and smiled, a long smirk that stretched his face but didn't reach his eyes. "All right, Tsukiyama," Kaneki said. "I'll make you a deal -"

Tsukiyama felt a chill run down his spine.

"If you draw blood, I'll let you drink it."

With Kaneki's gaze boring into his, Tsukiyama grinned, and attacked.

*

To the untrained eye, it looked like a spider was locked in battle with a particularly agile fly. The standard four _rinkaku_ burst from Kaneki's back the moment Tsukiyama leaped, materialising in defence against the other ghoul. Kaneki's _kagune_ were long and clawlike, sweeping and stabbing at Tsukiyama like mantis legs, red and pulsating with unnatural intent.

Tsukiyama found himself on the defensive, dodging and darting away from the slashing claws, using his ghoul strength to cover great distances and force Kaneki to pause the battle while he struggled to get back into fighting range.

"What's wrong, Tsukiyama?!" Kaneki shouted, punching two _rinkaku_ tentacles towards him. "Forgot how to use your 'sword'?" Tsukiyama narrowly avoided them with a backflip, jumping out of striking distance again. Still close enough to hear Kaneki mutter "fucking coward" though.

He laughed. "Sticks and stones, Kaneki," he said with a flourish. "If you can't catch me here, how can you hope to defeat the Aogiri out there?" He gestured at the ceiling, as though illustrating the world above and all the enemies it held.

Kaneki answered with a right hook, sending him sprawling. Tsukiyama recovered in time to deflect a jab from the _kagune_ before the next one made him stumble.

This is taking too long, he thought. His arm ached for the familiar weight of his _kagune_ , but he couldn't use it... not yet.

Tsukiyama attacked head on, as though in a blind rage. Kaneki instinctively flung out two claws to intercept him while the other two shielded his body. A good technique, he noted, probably adopted from other _rinkaku_ ghouls, but Tsukiyama had no intention of breaking through the boy's _kagune_ barehanded. Rolling to the side at the last second, he zigzagged around Kaneki. Kaneki realised his mistake the moment Tsukiyama kicked him in the back of the head.

Kaneki lurched forward, disoriented, limbs and _kagune_ flailing wildly. Time slowed as Tsukiyama hovered over Kaneki's blind spot. _Rinkaku_ ghouls were essentially show offs, it seemed, as the deadly, powerful-looking _kagune_ were distended ligaments at the base, a far cry from their muscular tips, making detaching them quite -

Tsukiyama's teeth closed with a snap.

\- _easy_.

The scream echoed around the room, shock and pain lacing through the tiles. Kaneki was good for a human fighter, but when it came to his transplanted powers, he reacted on instinct, which screamed at him to flee. He tore away from Tsukiyama's jaws, leaving one ripped, twitching claw behind. Tsukiyama swallowed a piece of his prize and grimaced. The RC cells that made up a ghoul's _kagune_ started to decompose once they broke contact with the body, and the flesh,  though still fragrant, was disintegrating rapidly in his mouth, leaving only dried-out crumbs. Tsukiyama tossed the dying claw aside. No, he wanted something _fresh_.

Kaneki was holding his shoulder gingerly, and Tsukiyama vaguely remembered wrenching it out as he bit off the _rinkaku_ claw. Unfortunately, he hadn't broken the skin. He started to circle Kaneki slowly. Don't look at me like that, he wanted to cry. It makes me want to tear you limb from limb!

Kaneki broke the lull with a roar, using his _kagune_ to fling himself forward in an instant. Tsukiyama jumped away, but felt his leg tear, a deep gash opening in his thigh. A glimpse of white bone flashed before it was hurriedly knitted over, but blood soaked his trouser leg in seconds. Kaneki didn't give him time to recover, launching a series of punches and kicks that Tsukiyama didn't completely manage to block. When Tsukiyama felt his left forearm crack and several fingers break, he shoved Kaneki away and darted just out of range again.

"What the hell, Tsukiyama?" Kaneki spat. "Aren't you going to take it out?!"

Tsukiyama refrained from pointing out the innuendo, instead purring, "You want to see it that much?" His right arm felt pathetically empty without his characteristic _kagune_ coil around it. Tsukiyama surreptitiously tested his injured leg; it wouldn't hold. Fatigue was really curbing his cell regeneration. Even with that shoulder, Kaneki didn't even look puffed.

Kaneki's eyes were blazing. "Tsukiyama, fight with your _kagune_ now."

It was now or never. Tsukiyama deliberately unbuttoned his jacket and took it off. "As you wish," he said, smiling.

He threw the jacket in Kaneki's face.

The _rinkaku_ had over twice the reach of his arm, so Kaneki batted the cloth aside almost immediately with a claw. But that momentary distraction allowed Tsukiyama to vanish into thin air. Kaneki's eyes darted around the room, but the bleached walls gave no clues, no idea where Tsukiyama was -

Kaneki caught the scent of a _kagune_ forming above him before his back exploded in agony.

Out of the corner of his eye, Kaneki saw Tsukiyama's shimmering blue blade draw back for a second strike, and he dived away as the sword gouged out the stone floor, leaving a gash between three rapidly shrivelling clawlike remains.

"Never say I can't follow instructions, _mon cher_!" Tsukiyama raised his heavy blade towards Kaneki. The scales had just tipped lightly in his favour. "I believe I have a reward to claim."

Kaneki showed him a smile that was all teeth. "Come and get it."

Despite being deprived of a _kagune_ , Tsukiyama noted wryly, Kaneki remained practically unscathed throughout their battle. As they continued to spar, Tsukiyama's reluctance to use his _kagune_ was slowly validated. His _koukaku_ was a formidable power, but its weight and bulk slowed him to the point where he couldn't effectively stave of Kaneki's faster blows, let alone land a proper hit on the quicker, white-haired boy. Before long, Kaneki managed to reform his _kagune_ , and smashed the coiled behemoth into dissolving fragments. Tsukiyama immediately conceded defeat after that.

Kaneki handed Tsukiyama a bottle of water, and opened one for himself.

"Why did you surrender?" he asked. "You could still fight."

Tsukiyama sniffed. "And go through all that trouble of cutting off your _kagune_ again? _Non, merci_." He poured the bottled water over his injured leg, letting the water wash away dried blood stains. Murky water pooled at his feet.

"What did you mean before, about _rinkaku_ being stronger than _koukaku_?" Kaneki said. He sat down beside Tsukiyama.

Tsukiyama splashed the rest of the water over his face and let it run; his shirt was ruined anyway. "It's a theory: depending on the _kagune_ , some types are more effective against other types, for example, _koukaku_ trumps _ukaku_ , _rinkaku_ beats _koukaku_ , and so on."

Kaneki mulled it over in silence. Tsukiyama shook his empty bottle like a child's toy.

"It's like 'paper, scissors, rock', I suppose," Tsukiyama said pensively.

He turned to find Kaneki regarding him sombrely. "Touka is an _ukaku_ and she still beat you."

_Oh, for heaven's sake_. "I was emotionally compromised at the time," Tsukiyama said with a brittle smile. He tossed the bottle away and stood up with a big stretch: finally, all his bones were whole again and his leg was no longer throbbing.

"Uuuuuugh," he moaned regretfully. "I didn't even get a taste of Kaneki-kun at all..."

Beside him, Kaneki just rolled his eyes - or eye, having put his eye patch back on. He got up and seemed to remember something, turning to Tsukiyama. "It was a good match," he said. "Humans usually shake hands after something like that."

Tsukiyama couldn't be bothered complaining and just stuck his hand out. Kaneki grabbed it and gave it a firm shake, textbook style. Tsukiyama smiled at the shape of his palm, the warmth and the... wetness?

He broke the handshake and looked at his hand, now a glistening, fragrant crimson. Kaneki's voice drifted to him as though from a distance. "Well, you did sort of draw blood..."

Blood. Kaneki's blood.  
Just pulsing through him a second ago.  
This heavenly scent, freshly bled like nectar wrung from a flower!  
It smells so good! Like Rize... but also Kaneki...  
Just one taste, I'll save it for later -  
This aroma! The thickness! That hybrid flavour!  
_KANEKI_!  
Oh! Oh... there's no more...

When Tsukiyama opened his eyes, Kaneki had already left. It didn't matter. He brought his empty palm to his nose and breathed deeply.

Losing never tasted so good.

**Author's Note:**

> This fic spawned because I was totally confused why Tsukiyama would bother fighting Kaneki AT ALL because of their conflicting kagune types; I mean, Tsukiyama isn't THAT strong, and Kaneki's rinkaku should be wiping the floor with a koukaku blade... I headcanon that the 'slowness' of the koukaku types only kicks in when they activate their kagune, because Tsukiyama's fights don't ever seem to proceed slowly. Anyway, this turned into mild angst, suggestive dialogue and FUN AS HECK FIGHT SCENES. When ghouls heal like crazy, even practice fights get exciting! I fight-ship these two so much, they have such a good dynamic of "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer", and Tsukiyama really deserves a beat down.
> 
> I wish I could be sorry for Tsukiyama being the way he is, but I guess I'm not xD He was actually really fun to write! Also, let me know if I got any of Tsukiyama's multilingual malapropisms wrong, because I haven't touched French in like 4 years and learnt Italian from Assassin's Creed 2 xD


End file.
